I just got back from our second four day retreat with my I AM Alchemy 2018 students, and I feel...

...full of energy, enjoyment, grace, and amazing food.

...inspired by my amazing students, by my personal takeaways, and by the body of knowledge itself.

...supported by my wonderful Shaman Sister, Katherine Bird, and by Ruthanne and Heaven and Earth Retreats.

...eager to share the magic with you!

Here's a sneak peek inside what goes on during a magical I AM Alchemy retreat:

Every morning, we began our day with Qi Gong practice lead by guest instructor Katherine Bird. Kat brought us practices from her Medical Qi Gong studies to support the energetic work. During this retreat, part of our focus included working with the Three Essentials (Salt, Mercury and Sulfur) and our personal Planetary Constitution. Here, Kat introduces us to the philosophy behind our movement practice:

We learned how to calculate the personal planetary constitution of everyone in the class, based on the Alchemical doctrine of Planetary Rulership. This includes primary archetypal influences, personal "power hours," and supporting the energies with corresponding metals, herbs, colors, foods and embodiment practices...

We played games and found out who among us is competitive (hint: 2/3 of Team Mars, big surprise). We ate incredible food, we did intuitive readings and healing work for each other, we took a stargazing stroll and saw Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. We laughed a lot and witnessed each other through our joy and our tears. We examined our personal and professional practices in light of this mystery school and renewed our commitments to Self and Spirit as wayshowers for a New Earth.

We all took an afternoon of solo ritual space to Vision Quest and practice journey work to step into this next initiation phase of our course. Everyone worked some pretty powerful magic and came back with epiphanies, commitments, messages from Guides and new, powerful energies to supercharge the next stage of the journey.

The weekend included plenty of time for journaling and personal reflection. In such a beautiful setting, you can't help but breathe a little deeper, tune in to a more subtle awareness and just let yourself simply be.

There were signs and synchronicities everywhere! We received plenty of visits from animal guides, whispers from Spirit, and massive inputs of eclipse energy. Every sign felt like a message from Source, saying "you're on the right track. Enjoy the journey."

Plus, we got to wake up with this right outside every morning. Check out the view from my bed:

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, nourishing, inspiring retreat experience! This work is so much FUN, and I get to share it with a cohort of passionate, powerful students who are changing their lives and changing the world. It is truly an honor and a joy to dive deeper and deeper into this work. I AM Alchemy is stretching me, pushing me and inspiring me to uplevel my practice and my craft in ways I never imagined. What a journey.

I AM going on retreat this weekend, and I couldn't be more excited! This Thursday begins the second retreat of my year-long I AM Alchemy certification training course.

I find myself blown away by the amount of growth and change that has already taken place within this container. Each of the seven of us, by committing to this work for a year, gave Spirit the green light for:

Massive shifts in energetic foundation and belief system.

BIG life changes in the realms of career, relationship, purpose, home and health.

More magic, more questions, more beauty, more challenge, more grace, more trial by fire, more support and more love than we imagined.

Permanently altering perception of and bringing closure to old wounds and traumas.

...and much more. It seriously boggles my mind, even though I "knew" going in that this Sacred Vision would be powerful beyond anything else I have offered.

...and I AM so effing grateful.

Not many people know this, but I AM Alchemy almost didn't happen this year. It was originally supposed to begin in February, then March, but both times, other life challenges arose that required my full energy and attention. By the time my March start date rolled around, I had no students enrolled and no conceivable way to launch the course. In despair, I called the retreat center to cancel my dates and told myself I would try again in 2019.

The next day, I had a business review session with two friends/mentors/fellow seekers on the path, Andrea Leda and Chris Wilborn. I tearfully described to them the challenges and struggles, the missed start deadline and how I felt somehow as though I had betrayed my commitment to a Sacred Vision.

The advice they gave me pushed me to commit to my work in a way I never had before. They told me to push the start date back one month, just one month, and to put everything I had into telling people about my vision. That same afternoon, I called the retreat center back and reclaimed my dates, and told myself that I would do everything possible within one short month to give my Sacred Vision a chance to be born.

...and it worked.

My course began promptly at its new start date in April, and this weekend we get to gather together in person for the second time this year. Three and a half months in, we have already witnessed and supported each other through massive transformation and growth. We have shown up for ourselves and for each other. We have celebrated each other's wins, supported each other through challenges and held each other in our Sacred Visions.

...and none of that would have happened if I hadn't recommitted to mine.

As we enter Friday's Full Blood Moon Eclipse (see below for more information and ideas!), we have the unique opportunity to relate to our Sacred Visions in a powerful, new way:

What Sacred Vision do you have that wants to be born?

What fears or challenges do you face around actualizing this Vision?

What do you need in order to believe that it is possible, and to take action on that possibility?

For me, I needed a push from two people who believed in me and one more month to make it happen. I invite you to sit with your own Sacred Visions and let them whisper to you... they will tell you how they want to be born.

How can a little, gold matchbox symbolize so much?

This past weekend marked the first of three retreats with my I AM Alchemy students. This initiatory weekend involved a fire ceremony, and as part of the ritual items I provided, I had metallic gold matchboxes custom printed with my I AM Alchemy program logo and a special quote.

I love them SO much.

It feels almost over-the-top how much I adore these little matchboxes. I mean... it's just a matchbox, right?

When I shared these sentiments with my mentor, she asked what else the matchboxes might mean to me. I considered for a moment before replying that these matchboxes were the first physical, tangible items produced in relation to my program. Everything thus far has existed as digital material or ideas in my head. In a way, these matchboxes were the first time that I AM Alchemy has had a "body."

As someone who provides the invisible (Spiritual Mentorship and Mastery is a service-based business with almost nothing tangible involved), opening the box to see these beautiful, shiny matchboxes left me feeling a sense of joy, giddiness and childlike pleasure. I took one out and admired the gleam, the quality of the matches, the perfect printing of the logo, the saying I carefully chose...

I AM Alchemy has been in the creation process for at least three years. I have produced various pieces of the material, called it a few different things and generally kept it small as I continued to learn exactly how it wanted to be born. Now that it has finally begun as a year-long, deep-dive journey, these sweet matchboxes feel like a kind of "proof" that it exists! To me, they symbolize the years of inquiry, study, investigation, writing, trying out material, channeling, planning and TRUSTING that this body of knowledge needed to be shared. These matchboxes symbolize every moment of doubt I overcame, every time I wanted to quit and didn't, every tear I shed wondering if I could ever actualize the vision I had for so long. They are evidence to me that I am capable, that I have created something of value and that finally, this program has truly made its way into the world to initiate others into the path.

Yes, they are "just" matchboxes. But it feels SO good to hold the box, admire the golden sheen, and with childlike enjoyment, strike a match and witness a spark igniting to actualize a dream.

Are you interested in participating in I AM Alchemy next year? Get on the wait list for 2019, and you'll be the first to know when I open applications this fall! Plus, receive an Early Bird Bonus!

Journal Prompt:

What vision of mine is ready to actualize? What does it need for that to happen? What do I need for that to happen? What validation do I need to receive to "know" that my vision has truly been born?